Introduction

A clever person once said, "Visions demand a strategy, strategy requires a plan." This is what is often overlooked or sidestepped by too many sales people involved in the selling process today.

And when people talk about selling process, people are not only referring to the sales persons or final customer, people are referring to the advertising agency, the media placement agency, the online marketing agency, the selling outlets, Selling & marketing strategy etc. In other words, all parties that are involved in creating of a product to the final stage of selling a finished goods or service are related to selling process and its success.

Walton Hi-Tech Industries Ltd. (Walton HIL)

Walton is the pioneer in Manufacturing Refrigerator, Freezer, Air Conditioner and Motorcycle Technology in Bangladesh. R.B. Group (Mother Company) is now the country's one of the top business group in electrical and electronics, Motorcycles, Electricity generating equipments and other domestic electrical & electronics appliances using the brand name WALTON.

The company has been running its business with a great status since 1977. Establishment of Walton HIL to manufacture Refrigerator & Freezer, Air Conditioner, and Motorcycle etc. in Bangladesh is a milestone in the path of success and reputation of the brand WALTON. Walton HIL has introduced first advanced research and manufacturing technologies and equipments for household & commercial Refrigerator & Freezer, Motorcycle and Air Conditioner etc. in Bangladesh.

Walton HIL is furnished with strong Research & Development (R&D) Division comprising with a large team of highly dedicated as well as skilled engineers & technical personnel from home and abroad. It is fully equipped industrial set-up with annual production capacity of 1.5 million Refrigerators & Freezers, 0.3 million Motorcycles and 0.35 million Air Conditioners, 1.0 Million Televisions. The Industry has its own Mold & Die making section, high precision molds & dies are made by the help of the state-of-the-art. machines. The company has three Poly Urethane Foaming Plants, three Thermoforming (Vacuum forming) Units; highly equipped Metal Forming Units with Powder Coating, Nickel-Chrome Plant & Die-Casting Section, robots operated Injection Plastic Molding Plant, Highly equipped Test Lab, Printing & Packaging Section, etc. Walton HIL always emphasizes on supreme priority to achieve customer satisfaction. So far Walton has received two awards. They are:

1. Bangladesh Binodon Sangbadik Samity Award- 2005 and2. Dhaka International Trade Fair Award- 2004

1

Product List

Walton offers some variety of electronics products:

1. Air Conditioner2. Color Television3. Domestic and Industrial

Generator4. Batteries5. Manganese & Alkaline

6. Microwave Oven7. Motor Cycle8. Refrigerator9. Mobile Phone10. DVD Player11. Steam Ovens etc.

Sales strategyEvery company uses a different strategy to uniquely position themselves against their competitors. To understand what sales strategy to use in the market, a marketer needs to understand their current market. The market positioning of Walton is given below:

Market Positioning

1. The Product: Signer defines it in terms of what it does for its customer. Walton only offers electronic products only that were mentioned before.

2

2. The Price: Walton’s pricing strategy is low cost focus. Walton is not viewed as extremely expensive products. It has focused on mass market segment with its low cost strategy.

3. The Place: Walton Bangladesh has a unique retail network. Its products are sold through 599 outlets across the country. So their customers are all over Bangladesh.

4. The Promotion: Promotion includes every aspect of advertising, brochures, packaging, salespeople and sales methodology. Walton has promoted its products in such a way that it has reached even in the villagers’ awareness of serving low cost quality products.

Selling Strategy of WaltonAfter analyzing the market positioning of Walton it can be understood that Walton uses Cost leadership selling strategy. Walton produces its product at a lower cost and target customer who are poor and middle class people and sale them products in a cheaper price. The details of selling strategies are given below:

1. Product selling strategyWalton produces most of the product on their own. Sometimes few parts of the products are imported from other countries. After producing they send the products to local distributor in different cities and then the products are sold to the original buyer. The total range of products and their selling sizes are given below:

Name Of Product Size of the Product12. Air Conditioner 1ton, 1.5 ton, 2 ton13. Color Television 14’,18’,20’,22’.24’,30’ and LED 20’, 32’ and

40’14. Domestic and Industrial

GeneratorSmall and large

15. Batteries AA and AAA size16. Manganese & Alkaline Depends on industrial demand17. Microwave Oven 8, 10 and 12 size18. Motor Cycle 80cc, 100cc, 125cc, 150cc19. Refrigerator 8cft, 12cft, 16cft, and 20cft20. Mobile Phone Various model21. DVD Player One single model22. Steam Ovens Two different model

2. Packaging strategyWalton products are available in different packing depending on the type of product. The types of packages are given below:

3

Name Of Product packaging of the Product1. Air Conditioner Plastic and hard paper 2. Color Television Paper box3. Domestic and Industrial

GeneratorNo package available

4. Batteries Plastic box5. Manganese & Alkaline Depends on industrial demand6. Microwave Oven Hard paper box7. Motor Cycle No package available8. Refrigerator Hard paper box 9. Mobile Phone Soft paper box10. DVD Player Paper box11. Steam Ovens Hard paper box

The packages contain the details of the product and they make attractive packages to attract the customers.

3. Pricing Strategy of Walton

a) Trade PromotionWalton Company gives trade commission to middle men or retailers in way a that they offer them some commission of the sales, by this these retailers and middle man push their product in the market. And that’s why Walton seen more in the market. And they have a good sale in the market because according to the expert which product seen more in the market that sells more.

b) Different Price in Different seasonSome times Walton Company changes their product prices according to the season. Summer is supposed to be a good season for Air condition selling. So in winter they reduce their prices to maintain their sales and profit.

4. Promotion strategies

a) Getting shelvesThey gets or purchase shelves in big departmental stores and display their products in that shelves in that style which show their product more clear and more attractive for the consumers in the local area.

b) Eye Catching Position

4

Salesman of the Walton Company positions their products in eye-catching positions. Normally they keep their discounting product near the entrance of the stores.

c) Sale PromotionCompany also do sponsorships with different college and school’s cafes and sponsors their sports events and other extra curriculum activities for getting market share.

5. Distribution StrategyWalton Company makes two types of selling

a. Direct sellingb. Indirect selling

a) Direct Selling: In direct selling they supply their products in shops by using their own transports. They have over 100 vehicles to supply their products. In this type of selling company have more profit margin.

b) Indirect Selling: They have their whole sellers and agencies to cover all area. Because it is very difficult for them to cover all area of Bangladesh by their own so they have so many whole sellers and agencies to assure their customers for availability of Walton products.

6. Advertising strategy Walton Company uses different mediums

Print media Pos material TV commercial Billboards and holdings

Print MediaThey often use print media for advertisement. They have a separate department for print media.

POS Material Pos material mean point of sale material this includes: posters and stickers display in the stores and in different areas.

TV Commercials As everybody know that TV is a most common entertaining medium so TV commercials is one of the most attractive way of doing advertisement. So Walton Company does regular TV commercials on different channels.

Billboards and Holdings

5

Walton is very much conscious about their billboards and holdings. They have so many sites in different locations for their billboards.

SWOT analysis

Strength

i. Multiple Products in one Roof: Walton produces more than one type of product under one roof. So even if one brand fails in the market, Walton can back up the losses using the other brands. From last few years Walton has already proved that.

ii. Largest Local Dealer of Bangladesh: Walton is the largest local Brand in Bangladesh who manufactures TV, freezer, motor-cycle etc locally. They have outlets all over the country.

iii. Around 600 Retail store in the country: Walton have around 600 retail store all over the country which helps them to grow faster and reach customers more effectively.

iv. International expansion: Walton has already controlling the lower class market in Bangladesh and now it has 3 international offices over the world. So now they are trying to control the oversea markets.

v. Multiple retail formats for different consumer group: Walton has multiple retail formats for different consumer groups. In Dhaka city Walton has created expensive outlets showing every product of Walton for middle class and upper middle class. When in the villages Walton has smaller shop to attract lower and lower middle class families.

vi. Nationwide service network: Walton has nationwide service network which provide services eight hours a day and five days in a week. Walton provides long warranty period so if any product shows difficulty, users can take it to nearest service shop.

vii. Research and Development facility: Walton has R&D facility in Dhaka city which provide opportunity to introduce new product to the market. For example Walton has recently announced the launch of mobile phones.

Weakness

i. Low market Capital: Walton has less market capital than the competitor. Because of low market capital Walton cannot invest more money in R&D facilities to introduce new products. This is a huge weakness for a local company.

ii. Low economies of scale: Even though the wage rate in Bangladesh is very low but the export cost of the manufacturing materials is very high so the average cost per product is more expensive than some of its competitors.

iii. Availability of costlier loans: Banks in Bangladesh offers load in very high interest rate so when the company needs capital it cannot take sufficient load because of the interest rate.

6

Opportunity

i. Development and improved product mix: Since Walton is currently offering only type of product and the current market is not mature so Walton has huge opportunity for future to Develop and improve new products.

ii. Delivery of enhanced production efficiencies: The current production rate of Walton is satisfactory but not sufficient to meet with the demands.

iii. Up gradation of facilities and systems: Walton has a huge opportunity to upgrade their current system so that they can introduce high quality product to market. With high quality products they can enter into upper class market segment.

iv. Diversifying product portfolios: At present Walton is only offering 11 types of electronic products. If Walton upgrade their current facility they will have the ability to produce more diversified products. Since the current market is not mature so it is an easy entry market for Walton. With diversified portfolio Walton can diversify the risk of loss.

Threat

i. Riskiness of the firm: At present Walton is only offering product for lower and middle class product. The market is not mature so in near future multiple competitors can enter into the market. This can be a huge risk for Walton.

ii. Shortage of Funds: The capital of Walton is limited as it is mentioned in the contract form. So in future if Walton wants to increase its fund it can face shortage.

iii. High-end competitors: The current market has a lot of High end multinational competitors like Sony, Singer, LG, Samsung etc. these high end competitors can enter into the low end market in any time which can be a risk for Walton. Also these high end competitors put a huge barrier to enter into high end market.

iv. Political and economical influences: The political and economical condition of Bangladesh is very unstable. Change of a political party in every five year has a huge influence in the market. This is a huge risk for Walton.

7

Conclusion

Traditional selling strategy looks at a service, product or product line and the message needed to sell to a customer base. Cost leadership strategy looks at the whole business, its vision and goals, its target markets, and the natural connections between and among all the business elements to discover what methods and messages will appeal to each customer. Walton Bangladesh has already started implementing the cost leadership concept in their selling strategy and has already observed the significant changes in their outcomes. Selling has been increasing and integration within and outside the organization has been more efficient. Because of gradual implementation of holistic marketing approach it has sustained in a very competitive market with success.

Word Count 1954